2015 Dodge Viper gets power bump, lineup tweaks

GT model added, TA gets enhanced.

It's been a rough year for the Viper, for whom slow sales have led to extended production shutdowns in 2014. The 2015 model year ushes in a number of changes, modest though they may be. First, the SRT brand experiment is officially over. The car's name is now the 2015 Dodge Viper SRT, and as we first reported back in June, the V10 sees a 5-hp bump in power to 645 horses. Torque remains steady at 600 lb-ft, and highway mileage improves to 20 mpg (up 1 mpg from 2014).

The lineup expands to include a new Viper GT trim, which fills the gap between the base car and the loaded GTS. GT buyers get the two-mode, driver-adjustable suspension and five-mode electronic stability control system from the GTS, along with Nappa leather seats with Alcantara accents and contrast stitching. Pricing for the Viper GT is still TBA, but it will land somewhere between the entry car and the GTS.

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The Viper TA returns as the improved TA 2.0. The 2.0 part of the moniker refers to the updated aero package, which incorporates a bigger rear wing, new front dive planes, and a new carbon-fiber front splitter. The package improves downforce to 400 pounds at 150 mph versus the 2014 Viper TA's 278 pounds at 150 mph. The rest of the TA's myriad performance enhancements to the chassis, suspension, and brakes carry forward.

96 Viper TA 2.0 models will be built—32 each in Competition Blue, the new-for-2015 Yorange, and Venom Black.

A special edition Viper GTS Ceramic Blue edition will be offered and limited to 40 cars. In addition to the namesake color, the car gets a number of other visual cues, like orange brake calipers, black chrome wheels, and carbon-fiber brake ducts, to name a few.

Finally, Stryker Purple joins Yorange as the new paint colors available in 2015. We'd show them to you, except none of the photos Dodge released include the new hues.

No matter how Dodge tries to spin it, life for the 2015 Viper won't get easier any time soon, what with Dodge's cheaper and more powerful SRT Hellcat models winning hearts and minds from lower rungs on the performance totem pole, as well as the looming menace that is the 2015 Corvette Z06. Time to see how much fight the V10 has left in it.